Shrike Sighting (Kure Beach)

This past week we spotted a Shrike (see picture to the right) on Ft Fisher Blvd in Kure Beach. Photo courtesy of Brady Beck.


No larger than a robin, this handsome bird has a curious liking for food items that one usually associates with the Falconiformes, members of the hawk family. Adept at catching insects, small mammals, snakes, lizards, amphibians and small birds, the loggerhead shrike is an enigma amongst the songbirds with its powerful, hooked beak quickly dispatches larger prey by biting the nape of the neck. The shrike then impales the prey on a barbed-wire fence or a convenient thorn. It tears off edible portions and swallows them whole—bone, fur, feathers etc.— and later regurgitates the parts it does not digest like bones.

Thus, because of its small size and lack of large talons for gripping, the shrike has learned to use thorns or barbed wire in its environment to aid in holding and consuming these larger prey items. To hunt prey the shrike often perches for long periods of time, high on trees and telephone wires, where they are commonly observed from the road.